Startup survival lessons
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The document outlines key lessons for startup survival in software development, emphasizing the importance of configuration management, deployment strategies, and ownership of code. It discusses prioritization, communication, and the significance of monitoring systems and costs. The conclusion highlights that code is more effective than documentation, encouraging accountability and effective communication among teams.
Startup survival lessons
- 1. Engineering: Weekly Tech Talk Startup Survival Lessons Martin Cozzi May 2014
- 2. Developer
- 3. Development environment ● Install all the things
- 4. Development environment ● Install all the things ● Manually
- 5. Development environment ● Install all the things ● Manually ● Don’t document any of the steps
- 6. Development environment ● Install all the things ● Manually ● Don’t document any of the steps ● Or the versions
- 7. Development environment ● Install all the things ● Manually ● Don’t document any of the steps ● Or the versions
- 9. Development environment(s) ● Install all the things | What things?
- 10. Development environment(s) ● Install all the things | What things? ● Manually | Mac? Linux? Windows?
- 11. Development environment(s) ● Install all the things | What things? ● Manually | Mac? Linux? Windows? ● Don’t document any of the steps ● Or the versions ○ Postgres 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4a ○ ES 0.90.4, 0.90.11, master
- 12. Development environment(s) ● Install all the things | What things? ● Manually | Mac? Linux? Windows? ● Don’t document any of the steps ● Or the versions ○ Postgres 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4a ○ ES 0.90.4, 0.90.11, master ○ Ruby 1.9.3, 2.0.0, 2.1.0, master
- 13. I have an idea
- 15. Development environment ● Install all the things ● Manually ● Don’t document any of the steps ● Or the versions
- 16. Development environment ● Install all the things ● Manually ● Don’t document any of the steps ● Or the versions IN ONE PLACE
- 21. SPoF
- 22. Availability
- 23. Expectations
- 24. I have an idea
- 26. Lesson 1 Configuration management still by developers developers
- 27. Chef
- 28. chef-solo
- 31. ● Install all the things ● Manually ● Don’t document any of the steps ● Or the versions code >
- 32. Configuration management ● Consistent workstation ○ developers ○ sandbox ○ production ● Shared ● Code
- 34. Versions matter.
- 35. dev -> sandbox -> prod
- 36. dev -> sandbox -> prod
- 37. dev -> sandbox -> prod
- 38. dev -> sandbox -> prod
- 39. dev -> sandbox -> prod
- 40. dev -> sandbox -> prod
- 41. dev -> sandbox -> prod
- 42. dev -> sandbox -> prod
- 43. dev -> sandbox -> prod
- 45. Blue Green
- 51. Canary
- 53. Canary deploys
- 54. Lesson 3 Ownership If you wrote it support it.
- 55. Test it
- 56. Measure it
- 58. Log it
- 62. Monitor it
- 63. Externally too
- 64. Externally too
- 65. Watch it
- 67. Look for the signs
- 69. Lesson 4 Prioritization Pick your battles
- 70. Prioritization ● Priority ○ p0, p1, p2, p3 ○ Critical, High, Medium, Low
- 71. Prioritization ● Priority ○ p0, p1, p2, p3 ○ Critical, High, Medium, Low ● Channels ○ Email ○ Hipchat ○ Text ○ Phone call
- 73. Get some sleep!
- 74. Lesson 5 Communication Escalate, but don’t panic.
- 78. Fix but don’t take shortcuts
- 80. Post Mortems Help you learn from your mistakes.
- 81. Tests Catch it early on next time
- 82. Automate
- 86. Lesson 5 Cattle not Cats (don’t be sad)
- 89. If someone knows an IP nuke the box
- 90. (clouds don’t have feelings) it’s OK
- 91. Lesson 6 Time > Money YMMV
- 93. Instant value
- 94. EBS
- 95. EBS ● Stop your instance
- 96. EBS ● Stop your instance ● No data loss on deletion (instance)
- 97. EBS ● Stop your instance ● No data loss on deletion (instance) ● Resize
- 98. EBS ● Stop your instance ● No data loss on deletion (instance) ● Resize ● Snapshot
- 99. EBS ● Stop your instance ● No data loss on deletion (instance) ● Resize ● Snapshot ● IOPS
- 104. Blackboxes are great until they break
- 105. Monitor Cost
- 106. High Level
- 107. AWS Breakdown
- 108. AWS / service breakdown
- 109. Conclusion ● Code > Wiki
- 110. Conclusion ● Code > Wiki ● Systems fail
- 111. Conclusion ● Code > Wiki ● Systems fail ● Own your stuff
- 112. Conclusion ● Code > Wiki ● Systems fail ● Own your stuff ● Communicate
- 113. Conclusion ● Code > Wiki ● Systems fail ● Own your stuff ● Communicate ● Track your costs
- 114. Conclusion ● Code > Wiki ● Systems fail ● Own your stuff ● Communicate ● Track your costs ● Be proud
- 115. Questions?